Representation of Black women in video games is on the rise, but there is still room to grow | Opinion

gamesindustry.biz:

Forspoken is one of the few AAA video games within the past five years to have a Black female protagonist.

Despite the warm reception for Alfre 'Frey' Holland, the game's energetic and sharp-witted heroine, games publishers and stakeholders still need to reassess their apprehensions and invest in publishing Black-led characters — especially Black women. If there continues to be slow growth in the development of Black-led characters, the AAA sector of the games industry will continue the fragmentation of its Black consumers.

While Black female characters exist in games, they are not often the main characters. For example, 2022 had the release of major titles with Black characters (i.e., Angrboda from God of War: Ragnarok and Sojourn from Overwatch 2). Angrboda is relevant to the narrative in God of War: Ragnarok, but she is still a supporting character the player interacts with via a separate protagonist. Sojourn is a playable character in team-based shooter Overwatch 2; however, there are no protagonists or main characters in team-based games. Both these characters are utilized differently as a part of the player experience — and either way, the player is not adopting the digitized lens of a Black female protagonist.

Black female leads are not entirely unheard of in video games — but they rarely headline the AAA blockbusters

It is not as if gaming studios no longer have room for Black women as lead protagonists in certain genres. The shooting game genre is a prime example. We have games based around military vs. military conflicts (Call of Duty franchise), military vs. aliens (Halo franchise), military vs. robots (Overwatch franchise), military vs. dinosaurs (2020's Second Extinction), and military vs. demons from